Missing Treasure Ship

Most treasure ships you hear about are from ye olden tymes. But this one is not. It is very recent, and has a very dubious history.

Quoting from the AP article:

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — It's a story of a ship that vanished off the coast of Patagonia with a cargo of gold and silver, but its ending remains shrouded in mystery.

The Polar Mist was abandoned by its crew in a storm and sank earlier this year, but did the nine tons of gold and silver aboard worth more than 16 million dollars go down with it?

"Nobody knows anything. There is something strange here, but nobody knows what. I've made inquiries everywhere: nobody knows," said John Wilson, the Argentine representative of the British insurance company Lloyd's.

The mining group Cerro Vanguardia, which owns nearly all the gold and silver aboard the Polar Mist, has said the cargo was insured by Lloyd's.

The cost of recovering the cargo, which went down in waters 75 meters (225 feet) deep, is estimated at three million dollars. It has to be done by the start of autumn in the southern hemisphere, March 21, for it to have a chance of succeeding.

The big news is that the sinking of the ship was kept secret for a month, and this has all involved feeling very skeptical about the nature of the sinking. Time, and the salvage operation, will tell whether this is simply the story of a ship caught in a storm or something more.